In Milltown, council considers removing beloved wading rhino from the Dodder

On Friday afternoon near Milltown, two women walked along the Dodder River with six young girls in tow, excitedly headed home from school.

As they passed under Classon’s Bridge, one of the girls ran ahead up the path, jumping up and down as she reached the car park outside the Dropping Well pub off the busy Lower Churchtown Road.

“Look, look,” she shouted to the group from the bank, and pointed to a sculpture in the middle of the river: a bronze rhinoceros.

And, as quickly as she spotted it, she ran on.

The rhino is named “Woody”, says the pub’s website, on which he is referred to as their “adopted” pet.

Woody stares west towards Dartry Park. The detail on his cold metallic exterior is wrinkled and undulating. His left ear is missing.

Woody’s feet are bolted into a concrete platform in the middle of the Dodder, and as the dark brown water raced past, branches, twigs, reeds and grass were gathering at his feet.

But, as Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council prepare to roll out a flood alleviation scheme along the river, the sculpture may need to be relocated.

The council has looked into its removal, said Gerard O’Connell, a Dublin City Council engineer, at a meeting of the South East Area Committee on 8 April. And they are currently in discussions with the sculpture’s owner, he said.

That’s the story we’ve been told

As four o’clock comes around on Friday evening, there are a handful of customers in the Dropping Well pub, drinking pints, grabbing dinner, and watching golf on the television.

The rhino appeared back in 2002, says Trish Roddy, one of the managers. “Somebody brought it there overnight.”

Neither Dublin City Council or Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown have a record of any planning permission being sought for the sculpture.

While it is bolted down, cement was also poured into the sculpture to weigh it down against the constantly running water, Roddy says. “There is a hole in its back, and that’s how it’s managed to stay down, with no flooding being able to move it.”

“That’s the story we’ve all been told,” Roddy says. “And we don’t know any different. Anybody who comes to work here, that’s what we’re told.”

Roddy however, says she doesn’t know who exactly created the sculpture.

The artists’ identity remains unknown.

During a South East Area Committee meeting on 23 June 2023, planning consultant Tom Phillips alleged during a presentation on improving the area around Milltown, that the pub’s owner, Charlie Chawke, was the person behind it.

“But everyone pretends they don’t know where it came from,” he said.

That is the consensus among locals, Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu said on Friday. “The pub has always denied that.”

Chawke did not respond when asked about its origins.

Phillips, at the meeting last June, suggested that a plaque be put on the wall talking about its origins.

And, speaking a few days after the meeting, Phillips said the pub has an annual Christmas tradition around Woody. “Every time, when it gets cold, they have a blanket for horses which they put on him.”

Debating about the hippo

The rhino was brought up again during the most recent South East Area Committee meeting, during a presentation by the consultancy firm Ayesa on proposals for flood alleviations along the Dodder River.

The flood alleviation scheme, which is being developed by Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, will upgrade the river’s existing flood defences and see new flood walls being built in response to growing flood risks of recent years.

Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn told the committee that when the river floods, the “hippo” tends to catch tree branches.

Flynn wanted to know if the sculpture will get removed. “It’s a lovely piece of work. But I think that it’s stuck right in the middle, and it can create, even when it’s just a normal flow of the water, problems can happen. It can gather a lot of debris.”

O’Connell, Dublin City Council’s project engineer, said the council has talked to the owner about removing it. “But negotiations are still going on.”

The only place that the Dodder does flood in that area is at the Dropping Well, O’Connell said.

Lacey, the Labour councillor, said he wanted to see more of that kind of strange art in the city. “I love the hippo. I love where it is. I hope it stays there. I think it adds to the fun and the enjoyment of the river by a lot of people.”

It’s a rhino, said Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu. “If you’ve seen it lately, it’s definitely a rhino.”

It does have a horn, O’Connell said. “So I assume it’s a rhino.”

Ayesa, the planning consultants, did not respond when asked about whether it is looking to remove or relocate the rhino.

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said it was a matter for Waterways Ireland.

A spokesperson for Waterways Ireland said that the Dodder is not in their remit, and that they have no involvement in the project.

Victoria White, of the Dodder Action Group, said on Monday that she thinks it shouldn’t have gone there in the first place. “The new thinking, particularly from the point of view of the fish and environment is that you lessen obstacles.”

It collects detritus and is an obstacle for wildlife, she says. “Fundamentally, the river is a fragile natural environment.”

White doesn’t get why it had to be a rhino either, she says. “We have a world class wildlife corridor. Is it a comment about climate change? But we should be celebrating the fact I’ve seen an otter right there, swimming past it.”

Chu, the Green Party councillor, said on Friday evening the rhino isn’t an item of major concern given the flood alleviation scheme itself could speed up the river.

“That will pose more damage. Building walls and concrete banks will inevitably disturb the river,” she said.